A 2-1 win brings seventh heaven

A dominant performance eventually got a just reward, as Jamie Jackson got the winner on 84 minutes.

The visitors, who stubbornly resisted a second half onslaught, began the game brightly, and looked to hit Tigers on the counter attack early on.

Within a couple of minutes of kick-off Ahmed Obeng had been flagged offside as he volleyed over, and Alex Melbourne slid a dangerous ball across Jon Worsnop’s box.

For Worksop, Ash Burbeary had the first sight of goal, curling a long range effort well wide.

Left-back Owain Warlow broke out of his own half and fed Burbeary whose low, deflected effort was taken well by Chris Gemmell.

Burbeary tried to catch the stopper off his line after a poor clearance but his first time volley sailed wide.

A nice turn from Massiah McDonald gave Mark Hudson a shooting chance, and his drive wasn’t too far away.

And then very much against the run of play Rushall snatched the lead.

A nice ball down the right allowed Obeng to get away and his cross was missed by two Tigers defenders, before Matt Lewis sent it back for Obeng to sneak in behind Cotterill and tap home.

Another quick break almost resulted in a second.

Obeng was released again, this time on the left, and after he’d cut into the box Worsnop saved his shot well but had to scrambe to gather the ball at the third attempt.

Lewis tried to catch Worsnop out of position with a decent shot from 25 yards but the Tigers keeper was equal to it.

With two minutes left in the half Burbeary hit the target and brought his side level.

Gemmell came flying out of his goal to clear from Jackson but the ball dropped for Matt Young and his header allowed Burbeary to set himself for a low shot into the bottom corner, giving the keeper no chance to recover.

The goalscorer very nearly turned provider a minute later, taking McDonald’s through ball and crossing for Jackson to flick at goal, but Gemmell saved low to his right.

The second half started in worrying fashion for Tigers, Cotterill landing akwardly and suffering a flare up of the injury sustained on Saturday.

The club captain attempted to soldier on but on 50 minutes limped off, with Chris Wood coming on at right-back and Michael Jacklin dropping into the centre.

A long throw by Roberts was spooned up into the air by a defender and Jackson got up high to nod at goal, seeing his effort cleared off the line.

A foul on Hudson at the byline gave him the chance to swing in a free-kick, and it fell to Jackson whose first shot was blocked and his second cleared the bar.

Burbeary, never shy of having a go, brought a good save from Gemmell from an acute angle, then volleyed well wide from the resulting corner.

Michael Whitwell came on for the ineffective Duncum with 19 minutes remaining, McDonald moving wide left and Burbeary switching to the right.

With Tigers piling on the pressure Gemmell came to Rushall’s rescue as McDonald cut inside and unleashed a fierce drive that the stopper beat out.

But eventually, the visitors cracked.

Roberts took a throw in, got the ball back and volleyed it into the box where Jackson leapt to get the faintest of touches to beat Gemmell with six minutes remaining.

The centre-half could have argued to be credited with the goal, but having scored two on Saturday he was probably happy for ‘JJ’ to take this one.

The man who set up the goal received the game’s first yellow card late on, scything down Luke Edwards to halt a promising run.

Rushall delievered the free-kick into the box but Worsnop first punched clear, then got down to save a weak shot.

Tigers could have had more late goals but their counter attacks came to nought, and the final whistle was greeted with delight by the home fans.

Clark’s orange army march on.